circ. 336.'

'Let this passage be translated in what manner it may, it affords us an authority for connecting the Scots or Irish with Christianity, in the year 336.'

The writings of Tertullian prove the introduction of Christianity into Ireland previously to the year 200. In those early times the purest doctrine was inculcated.

'Gaius or Caius, who died A.D. 296, says, that the righteousness of the saints avails nothing to our pardon or justification.'

Celestius, While yet a youth, before he bad adopted the Pelagian doctrines, in the year 369, addressed three letters to his parents in Ireland, in the form of little books, full of such piety as to make them necessary to all who love God,' as said Gennadius.

This took place sixty-two years before the arrival of St. Patrick; which fact proves the art of writing to have been known to the Irish in those early days.

There is a mystery in regard to the death of Cor

mac.

It is said that he was strangled, and buried near the river Boyne, at Ros-na-riogh.

315. Colla-nais reigned king of Ireland, from whom descended the princely family of the Mac-Donaill, Earl of Antrim, who, generation after generation, derive their lineal descent from Heremon, the son of Milesius; not from Breogan, the son of Ith, as has been said.

377. Niall began to reign. He was surnamed 'Of the Nine Hostages,' from his receiving five hostages from the five provinces of Ireland, and four from Scotland and the Isles of Britain. He entered Albain with a strong army, and from thence to Britain,

which he rendered tributary. With a reinforcement of Irish, Picts, and Britains, he crossed the sea to France, and landed in a part of the country then called Armorica. He conquered all before him to the Loire, where, being encamped, he was slain. His army returned with great booty, and brought home his body, which was interred at Connaught.

In his time, Albain was first called Scotia. Buchanan, quoting Orosius, says, 'The inhabitants of Ireland are called Scots from the beginning, as our own annals relate.'

Capgravius, in his history of Columcille, or Columba, says, Ireland was formerly called Scotia, from whence came the generation of the Scots now inhabiting Albain, next to Britain, and this Albain is now called Scotia or Scotland accidentally from Ireland, from whence they are descended.'

'The great O'Niell of the Nine Hostages' left eight sons, to whom he bequeathed, and to their descendants, all his hereditary possessions, which were perpetuated to them. With but one exception, for more than 500 years, the monarchs of Ireland were chosen from the Hy-Niall race. Different territories were assigned respectively to the eight sons-four in Meath and four in Ulster, which in succeeding times formed into great clans, and was the cause of much dissension. They are denominated the North Hy-Niells, and the South Hy-Niells.

It is said that the army of Niell brought with them out of France 200 prisoners, among whom was St. Patrick, of whose parents we have no certain knowledge. His birth-place, it is believed, was Scotland. Ware and Usher fix the time in the year 373, and the spot, Usher says, was Kil-Patrick, which took its

name from that circumstance. He was Archbishop of Armagh, and his remains are interred in the Downpatrick cathedral.

At sixteen he was carried away captive by Niell of the Nine Hostages, and sold to a chief, named Milcho, who had his dwelling near the mountain of Slieve Mis, in the county of Antrim, which place is now called Slemish, parish of Rathcavan. During the six years of his youth which he spent in this place, he made himself master of the Irish language. In his Confession he says, 'My constant business was to feed the flocks; I was frequent in prayer; the love and fear of God more and more inflamed my heart; my faith was enlarged, and my love augmented; so that I said a hundred prayers by day, and almost as many by night. I arose before day to my prayers, in the rain, in the snow, in the frost, nor was I affected with slothfulness, for then the Spirit of God was warm within me.'

After his six years' servitude, St. Patrick escaped from Milcho, and with great difficulty made his way to his parents, with whom he spent two years in Gaul.

Thirty-five years he continued abroad, pursuing his studies incessantly, until the death of his mother's uncle, the Bishop of Tours, under whom he studied, his name was Martin, and by him he was ordained a deacon. After the demise of his grand uncle, St. Patrick renewed his studies under Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, by whom he was ordained priest.

Palladius, preceded him to Ireland being sent to the Irish churches by Celestin, Bishop of Rome, in 431.

The Irish are spoken of by Prosper, in his notice

of the mission of. Palladius, as the Scots believing in Christ.' But though some were Christians before the coming of St. Patrick, or even Palladius, for St. Kieran, St. Ailbe, St. Declan, and St. Ibar, according to the statement of Usher, had introduced and planted the religion of Christ in this island before their time, still the Paganism of the Danes prevailed, and Pelagianism tainted the blessed truth in many parts where it had been received. Palladius being ignorant of the Irish language, could do little, and therefore soon left Ireland and went to Scotland, where he died.*

St. Patrick was sixty-one when he returned to Ireland; and as Benignus, one of his biographers, states, he brought with him many learned and devout Irishmen, whom he met on his travels on his way thither.

St. Patrick may be deemed the chief, though not the first missionary to Ireland. His letter to Coroticus and his Confession are received as 'authentic works from his hand.' The great purity of the Christian doctrine that pervades them, the holy breath of prayer that forms the atmosphere of the Confession, and the frequent reference to the sole authority of Scripture, that is to be found in them all, convince us that they are genuine.' 'All the pieces contained in the small book of Opuscula of St. Patrick, are genuine, excepting the forgery of after times, that which is called his Charter to the Abbey of Glastonbury, to which, it is said, St. Patrick retired to spend his latter days. In MacGeoghegan's History, we are told that he had a disciple who took his name. This

* Ulster Churchman.

person is said to have retired to the Abbey of Glastonbury and died. From hence may have arisen the mistake of the charter.'

It is remarkable that the venerable Bede, one of the most accredited historians of the Roman Catholic church, passes over in silence the apostolic labours of St. Patrick, though his history was written within sixty-seven years of the period in which they are recorded; and this circumstance is the reason why many modern writers suppose his whole history to be fabulous; but there are reasons sufficient to believe that such a person did exist, and chiefly laboured in the north of Ireland, where he spent his last days, and where he died. There is no doubt that the religion which he propagated was drawn from the Scriptures of divine truth, therefore it was the good seed sown which took root, grew, and prospered.

It is certainly the fact, that the great standard of faith referred to by the early Irish Christians was the Bible itself. It is written,' appears to have been most especially the rule of St. Patrick, in his Confession, and even in the genuine Canons of his Synods; he exercised himself much in reading the Scriptures, as we are informed by Jocelin, his principal biographer, 'from the very earliest age of manhood.' Secundinus, his nephew, in a poem to his praise, describes him as‘a true and eminent cultivator of the evangelical field, whose seeds appear to have been the gospels of Christ.' 'Sacrum invenit thesaurum sacro in volumine.' 6 He found the sacred

treasure in the holy volume.'

The consequences were, the pouring forth among the people the precepts of the Gospel, which the Saint himself mentions as the effectual means of bringing